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Defend the Vote is enthused to introduce our legal counsel for the HAVA complaints that are currently pending before the Illinois State Board of Elections. Robert E. Lehrer is a distinguished civil rights attorney and specializes in mediation.

Mr. Lehrer's experience includes a long list of published opinions. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a certified mediator and a member of the National Association of Attorney Mediators. Mr. Lehrer was retained last week and is preparing for the mediation process.

To recap - Defend the Vote - via a filing by Sharon Meroni - has filed two HAVA complaints with the Illinois State Board of Elections. These two complaints assert that 1) the Administrative Code for HAVA filings is against Federal Law, and 2) that the WinEds electronic voting system used in Chicago and Suburban Cook County - and 11 other states - is not error tested certified as required by Federal and State laws, rules, and agreements. This Dominion Voting owned system includes the Edge2Plus and 400c Ballot tabulator.

Defend the Vote's objective is to remove these defective machines from use in Chicago and Cook County and to assist other states in removing them, too. We also seek better controls and reporting of errors in the operations of all voting systems in Illinois.

These complaints are now in the process of mediation. Mediation is a legal process that permits the two parties to attempt to resolve the complaint outside of court. The process is voluntary, non-binding, and permitted under Illinois Administrative Rules. A successful mediation will result in both parties agreeing to the terms. If the mediation is unsuccessful, then the matter would go through administrative and court processes. Katheryn Dutenhaver, from Depaul University, is the certified Mediator.

Defend the Vote believes the process of HAVA complaints should be public. We will post information as we go through this process.

Published on Tuesday, 20 January 2015 05:25 | Written by Sharon Meroni | |

James Leahy passed away suddenly on Sunday. This is a devastating loss to his family, especially to his wife Julie and their children.

Jim and I worked together on many Defend the Vote projects. He was a valued associate and friend. While he worked in many locations across Illinois, he had a particular passion for the minority wards in Chicago. He will be missed by so many!

Services will be held on Thursday at St. Patrick's in Lake Forest on Waukegan at 10 am.

Jim knew many people and this was such an unexpected passing, please help to get the word out.

Illinois Law requires all voting systems to be approved by an independent lab as having passed the error testing standards set by 2002 HAVA laws (Help America Vote Act). DTV research proved that in December 2013, the manufacturer of these machines, Dominion Voting, pulled them from the EAC’s (Election Assistance Commission) testing and approval processes after they failed the error testing rates in two separate independent lab testing programs. Dominion Voting decided not to undergo further testing and stopped manufacturing the machines.

Unfortunately, two jurisdictions in Illinois had already purchased the uncertified machines: Chicago and Suburban Cook County.

Consequently, we have filed a HAVA complaint against the State Board of Elections for allowing these machines to continue to be used in both Chicago and Suburban Cook County. Our objective is to have them replaced before the 2016 elections. In addition, these machines are used in the following other locations:

In-precinct Election Day Voter Registration: SB172 is dangerous and ill-conceived:Legal research and related actions to protect the integrity of the vote:

According to the General Counsel of the Illinois State Board of Elections, SB 172 permits in-precinct voter registration without photo ID. The ballot is cast as a regular ballot, not as a provisional ballot.

The bill changes the way election judges are hired to decentralize the hiring processes.

More – We have not fully analyzed the law yet. This is top of the list for January!

We will consider many options related to this bill.

HAVA Complaint: Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires that voting systems pass error testing rates set by the 2002 Federal voting system standards. The HAVA complaint details how the machines used in Cook County did not pass these tests and also do not meet mandates in Illinois law for having been lab certified.

Military Veteran Election Judge Recruitment: This long-term program promotes working with veterans and related organizations to recruit and train military veterans to be Judges of Election for both political parties. This program will work state-wide and will encourage disabled veterans to participate.

Minority Outreach: Our program will open offices in minority neighborhoods in Chicago to encourage voter awareness and the recruitment of in-precinct Judges of Election and poll watchers.

Non-Citizens Running Elections: In 2011, our investigations proved some early voting sites in Chicago were being operated by non-citizens. Subsequent follow up FOIA investigations proved that the employment I-9 records for 75% of the employees running Chicago early voting sites were not compliant with federal law, including some of the forms for the alien workers.

Election Board Testimony, 2011 – Present: Defend the Vote regularly testifies and appears before the Chicago Board of Elections and the Illinois State Board of Elections, which has successfully advanced positive change for Illinois’ voting environment.

Early Voting Audit: In 2011, investigations proved Illinois does not audit early voting returns. Our investigations inspired a July 4th, 2011 change in Illinois law: in 2012, for the first time ever, election jurisdictions are required to include early voting machines in the post-election 5% audit.

To follow-up on what happened at the Board meetings on Tuesday October 21st.

Recap: IN 2013, Defend the Vote conducted a FOIA investigation of how the Chicago Board of Elections secures the early voted ballots (both the paper copy printed by the machine and the USB memory device which saves the record of the vote). This FOIA proved that there was no verified chain of custody, literally! The ballots were moved from the early voting sites to the CBEC without anyone assuring that they were locked and sealed before leaving the early voting site, during transport to CBEC offices at 69 West Washington, or once arriving at the CBEC offices. We presented our results to the Chicago Board of Elections and were promised on multiple occasions that new procedures to secure the vote would be put in place. Each time we requested a copy of these new procedures we were told to wait... they were coming. Finally, unable to wait any longer, we appealed to the Illinois State Board of Elections right before their October 21st Board meeting to assure the early voted ballots in Chicago are secured.

On Tuesday afternoon, there were two Board meetings; the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners (CBEC) and the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE). Both took place during the same time frame. Logistically, there was a small chance I could make it to both, but I had to go to the ISBE meeting, first. On the agenda was the HAVA complaint filed in late August. During this Board meeting, the ISBE and I agreed to work to set up an "alternative dispute resolution" process and are currently looking for the correct legal group to serve in the role of assisting to resolve the HAVA complaint.

On Tuesday, right before I spoke, the ISBE approved Ken Menzel as the new General Counsel to replace Steve Sandvoss, who is now the Executive Director. General Counsel Menzel's first job following his appointment was literally to run to the Chicago Board meeting (which was still in session across the street) and to have them provide evidence that the early voted ballots are secured. Many of the ISBE Board members displayed concern and wanted immediate answers!

Editor's Note: November 5, 2014 - When voters attempt to vote and the electronic machine switches votes, that is considered a voting system error. The Federal government sets permissible error rates of 1 per 500,000 ballot positions. Assuming these errors are caused by calibration related issues, this is not considered a voter's error. It is a system or machine error. Rock Island voters should be very concerned about these reports especially because there were so many of them. Rock Island's next step should be to FOIA all of the repair reports from this election for these machines.

Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney (D-Rock Island) offered no comment to the media about the allegations, but did take to Facebook last night to silence any criticism, calling the formal complaints "lies, & more lies" and accusing those who filed complaints of "making false allegations to suppress the vote."

The Schilling for Congress campaign reached out to the Illinois State Board of Elections on Friday to report the situation. The State Board of Elections made contact with the Rock Island County Clerk's office and recommended re-calibrating the early voting machines. As of yet, there is no evidence that a full re-calibration has occurred.

According to a press release, the Schilling campaign has now received more than 20 reports from voters who have had their vote switched on the electronic voting machines. Several formal complaints have been filed to the Rock Island County Clerk's office.

Yesterday, the Schilling campaign also heard from a voter who went to early vote at the County Clerk's office and was turned away after requesting a paper ballot.

Jon Schweppe, communications director at Bobby Schilling for Congress, released the following statement:

"Every vote matters. Every vote should be counted. Karen Kinney needs to stop victim-blaming on Facebook and start working to fix the faulty machines. Voters in Rock Island County are quickly losing faith in the legitimacy of our elections, and that's unacceptable. The Rock Island County Clerk needs to do something immediately."

Editor's Note: 11-5-14 Poll book problems were wide spread during the 2014 November elections in Suburban Cook County and in Chicago. The books would not upload the signatures. This caused many judges to wait for hours at the polling booths as they tried to get set up for the elections. Phone lines to both Chicago and Suburban Cook County election officials were busy and dropped calls after the judges waited long periods of time to speak with these election officials to get help. We received reports as late as 11 pm on Election Day eve that polling booths were not ready for the morning because they were unable to upload the poll books.

From the Illinois Review: Friday, October 24, 2014

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL - Monday, when GOP 12th sub-circuit judicial candidate James Paul Pieczonka went to the Arlington Heights Village Hall to vote, he was surprised to find the signature on Cook County Board of Elections' files didn't look at all like his.

"I've been registered to vote for over 30 years, and never was questioned when I went to vote," Pieczonka said. "I don't know how it happened, but the signature was different."

The election official was the first to notice the signature problem, and took corrective action.

During early voting, the election officials compare the voter's signature to the one on record via computer screen. In the northwestern Cook County village of Arlington Heights, like elsewhere throughout the state election records for early voting are not held in binders as they are on Election Day because early voting polls take in voters from numerous precincts, rather than just one.

Pieczonka said the election judge declined the candidate's offer to present his state I.D. for signature comparison. Instead, he was asked to fill out two forms to re-verify his signature. After that, he was allowed to vote.

Pieczonka had no issues voting, just with getting access to the voting machines. He told Illinois Review he's been told of at least one other person that had a similar situation develop this week at an early voting location in Glenview.

Rock Island Republican County Chair William Bloom filed the complaint Wednesday against county clerk Karen Kinney in county circuit court. The complaint alleges the "correct outcome" of an expectedly close election between Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican Bruce Rauner (ROW'-nur) may be in jeopardy.

The complaint claims absentee ballots are being opened early and poll-watchers are being prevented from observing voting procedures.

Republicans want opened ballots "impounded" and separated from other returned ballots until the court rules. Illinois GOP Chair Tim Schneider says the complaint is necessary to "ensure that every single voter's voice is heard." But Rock Island State's Attorney John McGehee says Kinney's confident she followed proper procedure.